[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

Personally, I'd say the three toughest competitions are:
Traverse City
Granite State
Troy

Three toughest regionals:
Granite State
Finger Lakes
Midwest

Three toughest districts:
Traverse City
Troy
Detroit


Yes, I know what you're thinking... Granite State?! Traverse City?! Certainly Midwest, San Diego, and Kettering have those beat out! Well, that's what I would've thought too...

Being a bit of a scouting statistics fan, I decided the best way to figure this out was to compile OPR's for the top regionals. So, I averaged the 2010 OPR (multiplied by 8 to adjust for typical scoring difference) and 2009 OPR for each team at the regionals, then averaged those to find the competition average.

To reduce the error resulting from rookie teams not having data yet, I calculated a "composite" of the competition average... the average of the "including rookies average" and the "excluding rookies average."

Now, I'm not saying that this method is perfect; however, I do think it's a better indicator of competition strength than BBQ or SAUCE... I attached the excel file for those who are intrigued by the results. I only took the time to include the regionals that have already been proposed as being the top ones.


I think the reason why GSR has essentially passed under the radar on this thread is that it doesn't have as many of the "top tier/top 50" teams that other competitions have. Simply put though, it does have a tremendous wealth of second tier teams! I think the level of competition is less about a few teams standing head-and-shoulders above all, and more about the competitors as a whole being skilled. For this reason I was happy to see GSR and Traverse City at the top...

Honestly though, I just love watching the powerhouses play! If I could watch any webcast, it'd be the one with the most powerhouses... if I could attend any competition, it'd be the one with the best field as a whole.


Many thanks to Team 2834 (and by extension 1114), for their awesome scouting database from which I took these numbers! :-)

I agree with you on GSR. Some regionals have the top 5 teams in the nation and then a lot of lower tier teams to fill the other 19 elimination slots! For a week one event GSR has some heavy hitters that lead to 57 points scored in last years four final matches! Out of the 6 robots in the finals 5 of them made it to ATL and all of them played in the eliminations. I'm not saying it is one of the top regionals, but it belongs up there every year!